I’m not entirely sure what I expected for the Mace Windu comic but I’m not sure this was it.
Maybe my brain’s not playing entirely fair. For me, the definitive Mace Windu story comes from Legends: Shatterpoint by Matthew Stover. It’s an early Clone Wars era book that puts the Jedi Master through hell and back and tells one hell of a story along the way. It seems like this miniseries may be covering a similar era and so far? It’s just okay. And I actually really like Mace Windu as a character so I’m a little bummed that I don’t love it yet. In the first half of the issue, the Trade Federation droids were the highlight with one gag even make me giggle out loud. Towards the end, it got a little grating. However, I consistently had the droid voice in my head while reading the lines which is a check in the plus column. Master Windu, however, feels very stilted and I definitely don’t hear SLJ’s voice in my head while reading his lines.
The mission itself doesn’t particularly seem to be something worthy of a Jedi Master who sits on the council but the Jedi go where they need to go. This particular team (including Kit Fisto) seems to be not particularly good at the whole stealth thing… which what this mission requires. At least they got cool outfits? I do, however, appreciate the inclusion of a Miraluka and his apparent infinite source of eye-related humor jokes.
With all of the variety of life in Star Wars, I could certainly see how getting all of the species’ likenesses could be a challenge but there is something just… not right about how some of the aliens are drawn and it’s not because of the artist’s style. Shaak Ti and Yoda raised eyebrows in particular. Otherwise, the art is fine.
While I’m willing to give the book the benefit of the doubt and see where it goes from here, Mace Windu #1 hasn’t impressed me quite yet. We’ll see how the rest of the book goes. Check back with us once the last issue is released for our take on the entire Mace Windu story as we try out a new format for these comic reviews.
Mace Windu #1: Matt Owens/Writer, Denys Cowan/Penciller, Roberto Poggi/Inks, Guru-eFX/Colorist, Joe Caramagna/Letterer, Heather Antos & Charles Beacham/Assistant Editor, Jordan D. White/Editor
Continuing our informal “If you liked, you should read…” series, I’m taking a look at the